PRIZED ARTWORK
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Some highlights make a strong showing at the Bethesda Painting Awards. B-5
The Gazette BETHESDA | CHEVY CHASE | KENSINGTON
DAILY UPDATES ONLINE www.gazette.net
Wednesday, June 11, 2014
25 cents
Chevy Chase to get portable class in the fall
Steppin’ lively
Town negotiated for one, rather than two
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BY
ELIZABETH WAIBEL STAFF WRITER
BILL RYAN/THE GAZETTE
(From left) Sophie Welber, 17, of Bethesda, Kate Durbin, 15, of Silver Spring and Julie Olsen, 13, of Kensington, all members of the Culkin School of Irish Dance, perform Saturday during the 20th annual Imagination Bethesda children’s festival.
A shopping district by any other name n
White Flint developers seek brand for expanded area BY
ELIZABETH WAIBEL STAFF WRITER
People shopping or dining on Rockville Pike in that nebulous zone between Bethesda and Rockville may one day have to learn a new name for the rapidly growing retail and residential area. The White Flint Partnership, a group of
some of the largest developers in the White Flint area, is devising a marketing strategy for White Flint and the surrounding area, possibly extending north into the Rockville city limits, and it wants to get a county committee on board. The White Flint Downtown Advisory Committee was formed by county officials to look into starting a business improvement district for the White Flint Sector, a planning area a few blocks around the White Flint Metro station. The developers’ partnership, however, says marketing
a larger area will make Rockville Pike more competitive with the Rosslyn-Ballston and Tysons Corner areas in Northern Virginia, according to a letter Friday from the partnership to the committee. In its first meeting more than a year ago, the committee discussed settling on a name for the area sometimes referred to as White Flint, sometimes North Bethesda and occasionally Kensington. In its letter, the White Flint Partnership
State sets June 13 deadline for decision
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BY
ELIZABETH WAIBEL STAFF WRITER
The town of Chevy Chase needs to decide by Friday whether it wants a Purple Line pedestrian crossing near Lynn Drive. State engineers have drawn several designs for the proposed crossing. The latest one solves some of the town’s concerns, but engineers are now up against a deadline to get information to the groups of companies competing to build the planned $2.2 billion, 16-mile light rail line linking Bethesda and New Carrollton. A narrow footpath between two houses now connects Lynn Drive with the Capital Crescent Trail’s Georgetown Branch Trail. The town’s Purple Line
GREG DOHLER/THE GAZETTE
The Lynn Drive entrance to the path that connects the residential street to the Georgetown Branch Trail in Chevy Chase is not wheelchair accessible and could be altered, depending on a proposed Purple Line crossing for pedestrians. 5 feet shorter than the previous one, according to the engineers. If the crossing is built, pedestrians coming from Lynn
See CROSSING, Page A-11
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2014 Learn more about the candidates running in the June 24 primary. Check out our online voters guide at www. gazette.net/voters guide2014.
Drive could walk down the existing path toward the trail,
Rising junior quarterback a four-star recruit with 20-plus scholarship offers.
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Canal walk in Bethesda’s Carderock area is Saturday BY
ROBERT RAND STAFF WRITER
Is that a silver maple? No? How about a boxelder or sycamore or ash? For those who would like to learn more about the various species of trees that live along the C&O Canal — or just enjoy a nice walk through one of Bethesda’s most beautiful areas — the C&O Canal Association will host a nature walk focusing on tree identification at 10 a.m. Saturday in the Carderock recreation area. It’s the second in a series of
There will be nine earlyvoting sites in Montgomery County, open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily from Thursday through June 19. County, state and federal races will be on the ballot. A complete list of voting sites is at montgomerycountymd.gov/elections/index2.
B-13 A-2 B-10 A-3 B-5 A-14 B-1
Please
RECYCLE
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three walks in the same location designed to highlight seasonal differences in the area. Organizers say walkers should bring water, a snack and a walking stick and should wear sturdy shoes. Optional equipment includes binoculars and a favorite tree identification book. Walkers should enter the recreation area, turn right and park in the second parking lot on the left. The walk will be off the towpath, with a little nonlevel walking. For more information, contact Carol Ivory at carolivory@ verizon.net or 703-869-1538, or visit the C&O Canal Association’s website, candocanal.org.
Early voting starts Thursday
B-1 Volume 27, No. 24, Two sections, 32 Pages, Copyright © 2014 The Gazette
See PORTABLE, Page A-11
Spend a morning among the trees n
See DISTRICT, Page A-11
Purple Line crossing planned in Chevy Chase Mitigation Advisory Group has been meeting with Maryland Transit Administration engineers, trying to work out plans to keep the pathway after the Purple Line is built. The evening of June 3, the group heard from the engineers about a new option that would run a pedestrian crossing under the tracks about 250 feet southwest of the current path. That crossing could be used by students walking and biking to and from Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School. Mary Anne Hoffman, chairwoman of the group, said at the meeting that the state agency’s four or five previous proposals for the crossing were all deemed unworkable for one reason or another. The last of those options put the tracks too high, but the underpass for the crossing cannot be too low, or it could flood. The new option is about
In one of the county’s most affluent communities, some neighbors of Chevy Chase Elementary School aren’t happy that the school will have a portable classroom next year, but at least it won’t be getting the two portables that were initially expected. Officials from the town of Chevy Chase successfully lobbied the school district to reduce the number of portable classrooms planned next to the school on Rosemary Street from two to one. The classroom is expected to come down after three years, and the school district plans to plant trees to screen it from view. The school needs extra classroom space to tide it over until 2017, when a new middle school is expected to take in its sixth-graders, according to a let-
ter to the town from James Song, director of the district’s department of facilities management. Montgomery County Public Schools had planned to place two portable classrooms next to the school, but now plans to convert a computer lab to a classroom, according to the letter. The school’s enrollment this year is 532. It has 99 sixth-graders — the school’s highest grade — but 148 fifth-graders. About 14 percent of students at Chevy Chase Elementary School qualify for free and reduced meals; the district average for elementary students is 39 percent. Todd Hoffman, the town manager, said that because funding for the property next to the school came from a state program, conversion to another use had to be approved by state agencies. Town officials also had concerns about the aesthetics of portable classrooms and wanted to make sure the school used the
html. The Gazette’s online voters guide, with candidate profiles and more, is at gazette.net/ section/vg2014. In the Bethesda-Chevy Chase area, early voting will be at the Jane Lawton Recreation Center, 4301 Willow Lane, Chevy Chase.